Speaking to Zane Lowe during an Apple Music’s Beats 1 interview yesterday evening (December 12), frontman Joe Talbot confirmed that they are working with Beats – who has previously produced tracks for leading rap stars such as Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs, Gucci Mane, JPEG Mafia and Rico Nasty.
Talbot said: “We’ve got a new album it’s being mixed right now in your city [London] actually. The producers we’ve got is Nick Launay and Adam ‘Atom’ Greenspan and we’ve got another guy I don’t know if I’m supposed to mention him. Kenny Beats. I’m gonna get in so much trouble man.”
Speaking about his involvement in the project, Kenny Beats added: “Idles are the best band in the whole world. That’s what I said to them. I think this is a good lesson for anybody else who is pigeonholed or pushed into doing what they do best and only that.
“I heard Idles and was like this is all I want to work on this is all I want to do these guys are the best. I got into their DMs and told them that and luckily we got to meet and the proof is in the pudding. I care so much and I think they can tell. It has nothing to do with anybody knowing we’re working together or money or anything.
“I love what they’re doing I want to be a part so now everyone knows I’m a part of it.”
This comes after the Bristol punks previously confirmed that one track on the new record will feature the efforts of Warren Ellis from The Bad Seeds.
Speaking to NME about their third album earlier this year, Talbot said: “The only departure is development. You’re always evolving. It’s the next step along from ‘Joy…’ and ‘Brutalism’. This is the third. You can see the progression and regression in some ways. It’s us, but a year older. We got bored of certain things and excited by others.
“We want to write more techno, we want to write more noise, we want to write more pop, and we want to write more country. We’ll just write it until it sounds like something we love, then we’ll put the words on top.”
The band also rounded off their UK tour with their biggest show to date at Alexandra Palace over the weekend.
They played ‘Grounds’ at the show, one of three new tracks they debuted on the tour .giving fans an idea of what to expect from their third record.
Other new tracks included ‘War’, which opened the show, and ‘Danke’ – which saw them joining forces with support acts METZ and Giant Swan for the show’s closer.
